The Worst Advice about Content Creation

I have heard some really bad advice about content creation, content marketing, and brand journalism. While the Internet is filled with some great advice, there’s a lot of crappy advice as well that I’ve overheard, read online, or been directed to do by clients that I’ve strongly advised against. What follows are my eight least favorite pieces of advice on content production. Be sure to add yours in the comments below.

“It’s all about video”

“You have to create video. Everything is video now.”

Once again, this is uttered as if television hasn’t existed for 85 years. Video? What is this “video” you speak of? If video was the end all be all it would have rendered text, audio, and images as worthless. They’re not, and that’s why video is not the only way to communicate your story and message.

The irritation of this advice as is the problem with most of the listed advice is it’s uttered without inquiry into the goals or desires of the company and its audience.

Yes, video is valuable, but it’s not necessarily for everyone. What’s the best way to convey your story and information? Is your business visual? Do you have really interesting stuff to show? Would a picture of your product and its workings be a far easier way to demonstrate what it is you do? Do you have dynamic and smart people who work at your company that are great on camera? If yes to any and all of these, then create video. If not, then you don’t need video.

Asking a video producer to “create a viral video” is the equivalent of asking a film producer to “make an Oscar-winning movie.” We all know that’s not how content is produced. You try to produce the best content you possibly can and hope for the best. At Spark Media Solutions we have techniques to architect virality into content, meaning we have methods to insure a certain level of pass along, but in no way do we say to our clients that we create viral content. The reason everyone wants viral content is they want heavy distribution without having to pay for it. Who wouldn’t want that? But planning for viral often leads you down a completely inappropriate path where you’re looking for ways to “game the system” and not necessarily create videos that are appropriate for your business.

“You have to be on __________”

Whenever a hot new platform comes out, you will inevitably hear an expert tell you that you have to be on this new platform (e.g., Vine and Pinterest). To prove their point they’ll parrot out a bunch of statistics as to the new platform’s usage and growth plus point to a few examples of a few companies who have done really well. Here’s one thing no one takes into account with these new platforms. Someone has to be on the front page on day one. So someone is going to be insanely successful by the mere presence of being there. For example, every now and then you hit the social media lottery and your identity is the one recommended on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. When that happens you just start getting thousands of followers for no apparent reason. It has to happen to someone, and whomever it happens to they’re the ones who will be touted as success stories.

“Build content to increase followers, engagement, and/or views”

When we see numbers increase we think we’re doing the right thing. But honestly, if you just open an account on any social network and do literally nothing you will see your numbers go up. Post a few things and you’ll see those counts go up a little faster. Social media numbers go up regardless, and we get excited about them and tout them as levels of “success.” They’re often not. They’re usually just vanity metrics because they look good, but in reality they don’t show how your content posting translates into actual business.

You have to be publishing every single day/X times a week

Oddly, I get this more as a question than a piece of advice. I’m always asked, “How many times a week should we post?” That all depends on what information you’re disseminating and what your audience demands. You could get by just posting one article a month as the new online magazine MATTER does. They’re building a very strong brand on just that kind of content development. Yes, more is always better, but not at the sacrifice of quality. So if you can make something twice as good by posting half as much, then focus on making it better.

Get an intern to do it

This falls under the same category of “What’s the cheapest we can pay for this content?” There are many media sites that have figured out how to run a business on producing the cheapest content possible. Publish a ton of content that drives traffic and place advertising around it. It’s simply an arbitrage type system. If a page costs me $X and I will make an average of $X +$1 through advertising then it’s worth it to me to produce as much content at $X as possible.

If that’s not your business model, which is most of us who are not trying to make money from a media site, then avoid the low cost content technique. If you’ve spent a fortune building your company brand, cheap content will quickly reverse that trend and you’ll be spending so much more money trying to build back a brand you’ve tarnished with low rent content.

Make sure it’s perfect before you put it out there

In certain situations this may be true, but so much online content thrives on imperfections. It’s the way content evolves and people get to touch it and engage with it. This is not the same as producing cheap content.

“I usually write my blog posts so that they’re not entirely finished. I leave a lot of open space for you to add your opinion. And the reason I do that is because I want you to feel like there’s some contribution and some give or take to the experience. I’m not writing thesis and essay and editorials. I’m writing things where I have something in my mind and I want to share it and get your ideas too,” said Brogan. He does it because people love to give their opinion.

If you want some engagement with your content, it might be a good idea to not make it perfect. Also, you may have limited information and won’t have the time to make it perfect. In some situations it might be best to just put what you know out there and create the piece as a living story that you’ll update over time. But this is always dependent on what’s most appropriate for your brand. If you’re a medical outfit and you put information out there that hasn’t been thoroughly vetted then that could not only damage your brand but also bring about a lawsuit.

“Create great content” or “It’s about quality, not quantity”

This moronic simplistic advice is not advice. It’s like telling someone at Goldman Sachs to “buy low and sell high.” Sadly, experts I truly respect in social media have uttered this completely useless tome. It’s a declarative statement that is the definition of obvious. There is no advice here yet we’ve heard both of these recommendations parroted many times with absolutely no direction afterwards.

The secret to creating great content is:

Hire really good and experienced writers, producers, and photographers, who will probably be expensive, to produce the content for you.

Yeah, I know you wish it was something else.

Conclusion

Ultimately, what is arguably most annoying about the advice is in takes into very little account the goals and audience of the company creating the content. Before anyone gives you content advice about your business, make sure they know your business and your audience.

Lastly, if it sounds like bad advice and something that would make you feel really dirty, it probably is.

Thanks, David! Good common sense has become nearly extinct in marketing discussions today!

What I advise clients about content creation is, it’s just pointless blah-blah-blah unless it has an ultimate focus of DIFFERENTIATING what you’ve got from what the competition has. That’s what every target audience really wants to hear.

Positively excellent posting, David. I’m working on burning this into memory since so many of your points are useful intellectual ammo for fending off sundry content and communications idiocies. As for “Asking a video producer to ‘create a viral video’ is the equivalent of asking a film producer to ‘make an Oscar-winning movie.’” I will posit that’s analogous to the numerous communications/PR/social media jobs postings where they are looking to hire “a visionary.”

http://www.successrockets.com Larry Boyer

Great article! Not holding any punches, which is perfect.

http://www.sparkminute.com/ David Spark

I like that. “A visionary.” What they’re saying is we have no ideas. We need someone who can pitch something to a new or current client so they bite. I was chatting with a friend at a PR firm who is a senior level person surrounded by green junior level people. Her frustration is they never even tried to think strategically. They were all order takers.

http://www.sparkminute.com/ David Spark

You’re kind. There’s lots more nasty stuff I can say, so I guess I did hold a few punches. :) But maybe for a future post.

http://www.priyashah.com Priya Florence Shah

I think its more important to create USEFUL content that meets your business goals, whether its creating a community, generating leads or boosting sales. And each goal requires a different approach to content creation.

McPherson Consulting

Brilliant, concise, precise work here. I had the discussion about video with a client the other day, in the context of online learning. Trainees do not retain information better because some girl walks across their screen and does the Vanna White thing with the three bullet points they’re supposed to memorize. In fact, I can think of five reasons off the top of my head why this is really bad teaching.

http://www.sparkminute.com/ David Spark

Interesting you mention training in video. I attended a conference just about this very subject and there’s no doubt that constant testing and experimentation of the information presented is what’s necessary. I’ve become an enormous fan of screencast videos such as what’s found on Lynda.com and on TotalTraining.com. Simple instruction videos that are not expensive to make but incredibly clear and necessary. The only way this stuff though is retained is if I actual do a project. I’m actually in the middle of some training right now around a project. I hope it sinks in.

puzzlewood

Thank you, David, for a great read, and to everyone who’s commented thus far.

I watched an episode of AMC’s The Pitch a few weeks ago and raised an eyebrow when one of the participating agencies described themselves as a viral video production company. When I read your viral video/Oscar-winning movie observation, I laughed out loud. I am amazed frequently by how many businesses buy-in (and buy) the advice and services some ‘experts’ are selling. And also wonder how so many smart people seem to miss the fact that often these services are being pitched – with a heavy dose of fear-mongering – as some sort of marketing panacea. If only everything was that easy.